Pope Leo XIV ends his visit to Uruguay with a tribute to women before departing to Argentina

Pope Leo XIV wrapped up his visit to Uruguay on Sunday with an open-air mass outside a basilica in the south-central city of Florida. For his final event, the Pope paid homage to the women who passed on the Catholic faith and raised awareness against gender-based violence, calling on men to treat their wives with respect. His homily addressed a prominent issue in Latin America. Over the last five years, the region recorded nearly 20,000 femicides, most of them committed by the victim's current or former partner. Pope Leo became the first pope in nearly four decades to visit Uruguay in hopes of reminding the increasingly secular nation of its Catholic identity. He arrived in Argentina later on Sunday, where he will meet President Javier Milei, a right-wing libertarian whose austerity policies have drawn sharp criticism from the Catholic Church. The high point of his visit is expected to be the third and final leg of his tour, which takes him to Peru, where he spent nearly two decades of his life, first as a missionary and then eight years as a bishop.